disgraceful boiler cover .scottish power

sakiscotland

We only came to have SP's 'Home Comfort' deal as it was bundled with our last power deal. Since we reminded them that we were due an annual service they - eventually - carried it out then set in motion a catalogue of failures which left us with neither central heating nor hot water for weeks.

To summarise, they are inept with poor management and almost no internal communication. On almost all the visits we had by a total of 5 engineers they had no information from the previous engineer/visit. Above all, NEVER BE TEMPTED TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH THEM and SPREAD THE WORD. :mad:

Libertarian

I am sorry to hear of the problems others have had with Scottish Power's boiler cover. It does however make my approx 12 days without heat or hot water slightly more bearable.

I wrote to the Marketing Director (the only name listed, though potentially as real as Mr Kipling or the Jolly Green Giant) on 1st February, but am yet to receive a reply or even acknowledgement.

I'm not going to comment further at this stage beyond describing the timeline to help others decide if this is a product that works for them. From my letter:

In summary, I had no heating or hot water for twelve days. As important, I found your staff unable to manage my expectations, take ownership or influence this positively. My experience was made worse by a contractor with no parts and Scottish Power’s shoddy process for procuring them.


From my letter


Monday 13th January Call logged at around 6:30 am

Wednesday 15th January Engineer arrives, confirms the fan needs to be replaced, but since he does not carry spares it will have to be ordered. Unable to say how long it will take, so I buy an electric heater!

Tuesday 21st January Engineer returns with replacement fan. Unfortunately it is not the problem. He now needs to order a PCB!

In view of the delay in obtaining the fan (although it was available online for next day delivery) after the engineer left I called your office and was told it had been ordered at 10:08 that morning

Thursday 23rd January I called your office several times to chase, promises to return my call were not kept. I was told I could be given no guidance on when the repair would be completed. I suggested that I could get the work carried out by a local engineer, but I was told no one in the company had the authority to repay such a cost!

It also transpired that the PCB was ordered this day, not Tuesday i.e. two days later than I had been told! I’d call that misleading at best.

The reason for the delay was that all parts purchased had to be authorised by the Operations Manager. No doubt he/she is very busy, but that’s of little comfort that there is such a key person dependence.

After speaking to your contractor on 24th January I was able to get the repair carried out the following day, although they couldn’t guarantee it would happen.

Libertarian

DaveTheMus wrote: »

when you compare BG to SP you must also consider this....SP's agreement is a maintenance contract, which means there is no ombudsman to go to....with BG they are regulated by the FCA

Very helpful point and well worth bearing in mind when looking at a provider

Lgas

Ronniea that is absolutely shocking! You have a leak and without even visiting the 'engineer' tells you you need a powerflush? How will that stop a leak exactly? Or is your boiler only covered if the system has been flushed? (also ridiculous).

I've only read the last page of this but that is disgraceful.

neilr65

Just a quick reply to concur with everything that has been said about Scottish Power breakdown cover. Have had a boiler service booked for 5 weeks only to be told on the day of the service that they have had a high number of breakdowns and cannot send anybody for another 4 weeks. I worked in customer service and the premise we used was "we need the customer, the customer does not need us". Think someone needs to explain to SP about how a proper service organisation should be run. I binned my contract with them today and will be signing up with British Gas.

Jeetus

Good Morning,

Apologies for reviving an old thread but didn't see the point in creating a new one since I am in pretty much the same situation as previous posters in this thread.

We have been signed up with Scottish power since we moved into our new home on the 28th October 2013. At the time we also signed up for Homecomfort Premium. I wish we had done some more research before doing so because it has been nothing but disappointment after disappointment.

Callbacks promised and yet not delivered. Each time we have called homecomfort they have advised we are not on their system and therefore not eligible for the service. Various complaint emails to customer service who then advised that all issues should now be sorted and yet when I rang to arrange the homecomfort boiler assessment last week Friday, guess what? They were unable to find us on their system!

With a 12 week old baby to look after my wife and I really do not need this. My question now is -

Since the paid for service has not been provided can I cancel my homecomfort service and request that all payments for it since October are reimbursed so that I can sign up to someone like AA or Homeserve?

ihateyes

Jeetus wrote: »

Good Morning,

Apologies for reviving an old thread but didn't see the point in creating a new one since I am in pretty much the same situation as previous posters in this thread.

We have been signed up with Scottish power since we moved into our new home on the 28th October 2013. At the time we also signed up for Homecomfort Premium. I wish we had done some more research before doing so because it has been nothing but disappointment after disappointment.

Callbacks promised and yet not delivered. Each time we have called homecomfort they have advised we are not on their system and therefore not eligible for the service. Various complaint emails to customer service who then advised that all issues should now be sorted and yet when I rang to arrange the homecomfort boiler assessment last week Friday, guess what? They were unable to find us on their system!

With a 12 week old baby to look after my wife and I really do not need this. My question now is -

Since the paid for service has not been provided can I cancel my homecomfort service and request that all payments for it since October are reimbursed so that I can sign up to someone like AA or Homeserve?

Of course you can, when you write a letter, inc a transaction history from your statement showing the payments....

give them 14 days and threaten to take to small claims for a breach of contract.....

if they dont reply you can start a small claim on line costing about £70, inc the cost in the small claim.

That will really get their attention

barnabee

Another one regretting not seeing this thread.

We have just had our Boiler Care cover renewal in the post despite not even having an initial boiler inspection visit or annual service since we purchased the policy cover in April 2013.

As our boiler has not had an annual service it appears that the warranty we had from the installer is now invalid.

Phone Scottish Power who initially said we don't have boiler cover and then said they hadn't been able to send out a service engineer because of the bad weather. (What for a whole year??)

In accordance with the contract t&c I have escalated a complaint to stage 2 but having read some of the posts on here I think a trip to the small claims court is on it's way.

Needless to say I will not be renewing with Scottish Power. What is the matter with energy companies in the UK?

ladderman49

I paid for boiler cover with service every year its now been nearly 2 years and no service each time l made an appointment they cancelled.
The last time l stayed in all day nobody turn up or let me know.
My boiler is not safe after all the money l spent Scottish power was not interested so i cancelled.

malibu65

Received my renewal letter for boilercare last week which stated that the annual service was still part of the package so I rang them up and asked when I would be having the Annual service for the current year. The lady said she would get it booked in for me. 10 minutes later I get a phone call saying that I wouldn't be receiving an annual service because the initial inspection that I had in March ( took 10 months to get done not 90 days as per their terms but that is another story!) was also that annual service. I told her that the boiler was not serviced, the engineer hadn't even taken the cover off the boiler and the engineer himself told me he hadn't been booked to do the service but to ring up and arrange to get in done in July if I hadn't heard about it before then. The lady then stated that the annual service in year 1 is not a proper service and I wouldn't get a proper one until year 2 ( summer 2015) meaning that my boiler wont have been serviced for 2 years. I have now told them where to shove their policy. I have now signed up to another company and will be having a service in 2 weeks. I would not recommend them and I know that i have got away lightly compared to some people on here.:eek: